Friday, December 8, 2017

The Game Informer staff recently took some time to chat and reflect on their Mega Man 11 coverage. In the process, the revealed a couple new details. The Mega Man discussion begins at 4:00. I've summarized the interesting tidbits below:

After you defeat a Robot Master, you're taken to a blueprint-like screen where you can test out the weapon. It's a bit like a tutorial – you can see what every weapon does before resuming the game.

Mega Man 11 has a certain feature/mechanic that changes the gameplay up more than any feature/mechanic throught any mainline Mega Man game. This mechanic is described as "helpful" and completely optional. But when you do use it, it "changes the moment to moment gameplay". That's about all Game Informer could say on the subject. We can infer this mechanic has something to do with the gears beneath Mega Man's health and weapon energy.

The composer of Mega Man 11 is an individual that worked on the Star Force series. Game Informer couldn't say who it was, but it could be Akari Kaida, Yoshino Aoki, Marika Suzuki, or Mitsuhiko Takano.

Mega Man 11 will receive a physical release. Capcom could not comment on how much the game will cost, though it will be less than the typical $59.99 MSRP.

Very true. They do need to be careful on pricing this. I'm shocked that they are even going for a physical release. That costs money, which concerns me. I'm worried that many may find it not worth the money to buy if they are asking too much for it and only us die hard fans will be happy to fork over the cash. It is a serious question. The mass market could reject it if they ask too much for this. Plus if they do a ridiculous amount of DLC for you to purchase like Capcom v Tekken, etc. Hopefully they are listening to the complaints of the people concerning this stuff.

You don't even know what the full feature set is and you're already placing a low price requirement on it that harms the value and idea of what a Mega Man game should cost. It's a damaging of the brand image and only cements to Capcom that the fanbase isn't willing to spend money unless it's some cheap budget title.

We don't know anything about it. These comments help no one and just make us look obnoxious and entitled, as if we didn't already manage to do that in the past 7 years.

It's not cheap to expect to pay $30 max for a Megaman game, which is about worth it's length in today's market. Maybe $40 since the series is in need of saving, but higher than that and you're hitting Odyssey, BotW levels of value proposition and it really isn't close.

Die hard fans weren't even willing to fork out a measly 10 bucks for Mega Man 9 and 10. Despite being a critic darling and all the supposed love the gaming community gave over 9 and 10, neither game manage to make Capcom's Platinum Titles list.

http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/million.html

And yes, this list does include download only titles. The re-release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 charted at 1.4 million units sold, landing it on 52nd spot. Ducktales Remastered landed at 72 with 1.1 million units sold. Both of these games released at a $14.99 price point. Mega Man 9 and 10 are nowhere to be seen.

The Mega Man fanbase has done nothing but whine and cry about the state of Mega Man, but whenever Capcom presented a new title, the fanbase was nowhere to be seen to support them. It was only after Capcom pulled the plug that people started coming out of nowhere and moaning about it.

Whatever price point Capcom decides we'll have to find out, but this idea that the fanbase will be there to support the franchise is laughable. They haven't been there in over 10 years. I don't expect them to come out for 11 either.

Oh shut up already. First off suggesting that Mega Man fans aren't willing to spend money on the series is ridiculous after the near decade worth of merchandise fans have bought.

Second, everything we've seen suggests this looks like a Classic Mega Man game formula, so to suggest that it will be a game that is only a few hours long isn't the most outlandish thing in the world.

You people need to look beyond your little fanbase box and understand for this series to prosper it needs to hit the mass market. It doesn't matter if fanboys are willing to spend full price for a game if the mass market isn't. THAT would be more damaging to the brand than charging full price and having a few people buy it at that.

Dismissing valid concerns as making people look "obnoxious" or "entitled" two words that have been misused so much in recent years they have lost most meaning and anyone who thinks Mega Man fans have behaved that way haven't been paying attention, will just help dig this franchise back into the hole Capcom buried it in for nearly a decade.

@AnonymousDecember 9, 2017 at 11:10 AM"They do need to be careful on pricing this. I'm shocked that they are even going for a physical release. That costs money, which concerns me. I'm worried that many may find it not worth the money to buy if they are asking too much for it and only us die hard fans will be happy to fork over the cash"

While i do agree with that, i think this is also the reason why a physical release is needed. If they only release it digitally, the only one going to hear about it are...well, only the die hard fan who follow Mega Man actuality, and people who follow video game actu in general. If they want a chance to touch a larger audience, that larger audience would have to come across this game on the shelves. Also they will have to advertise for once, because if we're at reason to explain a lack of success, i'd say not advertising enough is a good way to let the game be not noticed enough, which lead to it not selling enough.

First off, Mega Man 9 exceeded Capcom's expectations. Just because something isn't a million seller doesn't mean it wasn't successful, and those other games you mentioned had advantages to help them sell that Mega Man 9 and 10 did not have that more than off set the five dollar difference between the two titles.

Second, to suggest that "They haven't been there in over 10 years. I don't expect them to come out for 11 either" in regard to the Mega Man fanbase is one of the most ridiculous things I've read in this comment section. Which is saying something.

Between buying all of the merchandise, re-releases, requesting the character appear in other games like Smash Bros, funding kickstarters, and even making games themselves, Mega Man fans have been not only going above and beyond what would be expected from most fanbases when it comes to supporting their franchise, but they have essentially carried the brand on their backs.

Capcom themselves paid for a Fan game to call their own for the 25th anniversary because they had nothing significant of their own.

How in the world are you going to even begin to suggest that fans haven't been there for the past 10 years? If they hadn't there likely wouldn't even be an 11th game in the first place.

You're both making a generality of a part of the fans. yes, some where making fangames, showing their supports, requesting for the characters and the games. And yes, some others where just complaining and insisting that Capcom was in league with the devil. Sadly giving the fanbase as a whole a negative image.

Now i still think they would have made 11 anyway, the question was "when?". As they said, they had a few proposition for Megaman games the past years, but just did'nt knew what to do with it. ther where peoples at capcom interested in working on the serie. they where just to frilly to try it, in part out of fear of a poor reception.Now, for the 30th anniversary, and after giving megaman enough exposure the past years with smash, or marvel vs capcom and all theses stuff that where half praised and loathed, they where sure enough that it was worth trying. So the answer is "now".

I want to note that they also talked about movement in game. To those wanting it to be identical to the old 8-bit games, it really can't be. If they made it exactly the same, the 16:9 presentation would make it not feel the same. They have to adapt the movement speed, jump height, shot speed etc, to make it FEEL the same. They made that point a lot during this interview. It FEELS the same, but it's not exactly the same. Some things had to be adapted to work better in 16:9, 2.5 HD.

It might be Marika Suzuki since they said the person "only" worked on Star Force and she's the only one in that group who never worked on any other Mega Man series. She's good though, she did Sky Wave and Star Force 2's Boss Battle soooo this might be a great soundtrack?

Yeah, Yoshino Aoki would be preferable to Marika since she's done so much more stufff for the franchise in the past and she's also really good. I can quickly think of another series where the soundtrack quality went down when a newer composer was put at the forefront.... Iyugh. Lol.

When you are going to the people who made star force you are already going in the wrong direction. Easily the worst series of mega man games by a mile. Hopefully we get a few tunes that actually stand the test of time unlike star force.

You mad, Star Force probably has the best soundtracks in the franchise.

The phrase "test of time" is a red flag your mindset is going in the wrong direction.

Like "memorable", that stuff is only relative to popularity and hipsters who think Wily Stage 2 is the only track in Mega Man. Not my fault people can't remember jack crap, because they never heard it or not enough people are shoving that opinion down their throat for them to conform.

Star force killed the series dead in it's tracks, as did zx because they were bad games. The soundtracks don't have any iconic songs not due to lack of age, they don't have any iconic songs because no one (other than the hardcores such as ourselves) played past the first one and the music wasn't very good in the first place.

I'd rather just get a whole new dev team at this point, since keiji's crew blew it huge, and getting the worst team to work on the franchise back isn't helping me cope with the fact the in game models already looks ugly as hell.

some of the music where really good. that you don't like a music does'nt make it bad. And so where the games. ZX1 had it's flaw, like the navigation between level being a bit messy, but was still enjoyable. and ZXA rectified most of the problem that the first had. And no one played thoses games besides us because no one heard about thoses games besides us. No comunication at all. for exemple, we did'nt get starforce 3 in europe because star force 2 did'nt sold well enough, but it sure was'nt going to sell well: nearly everyone i knew back then owned a DS, but the only one who knew about theses game whas me. i made them play the game, they liked it just fine.If it was just StarForce and ZX, they would have just gone and made new X games, or simply decided to stop making game with the DS. The reason why they stopped making games is because the games did'nt sold well enough (i'm not saying that they did'nt sell at all, just not enough) for every series for years. Save for MM9, which did a bit better than what they expected, partly because they weren't expecting that much, that did well enough to justify MM10. And yes when they said that Legend3 was cancelled due to a lack of interest, IT IS THE CASE. as painfull it is to admit it.Sure we where interested, we where very interested, but we where the only ones interested. And finally, they did'nt kill the franchise. as you can see we're finally getting a new game. They just could'nt do it lightly, buisness can't take too much risk. If they're not certain to make if profitable, they won't afford making a new game. We're complaining about MegaMan, but some franchise are having it much worse. Do realise that fans of others capcom property (everything that is'nt Resident Evil or Street Fighter), where actually accusing Capcom of favoring MegaMan. a appereance in a crossover game? MegaMan. merch? Megaman, too. just look at the dead rising dlc. half of Frank costumes are from MegaMan.

What killed the series, or rather put it in a coma, is that we kept calling all the games crap (not talking about you, since you said "bad").Not saying this to point finger at someone, that's why i say ''we'', i have done it myself in the past. seriousely how anyone is suposed to be interested in trying to get into the franchise if all the fan themselves are doing is calling every games crap? Of course not all the fan, it's never all the fan, some fan will call one game crap, the other will call another game trash. And all in all, from the outside it look like all the games are crappy. i have read or heard it for every damn games save from classic 1 to 6, and x1. it's crap because it's not 8-bit. It's crap because it's 8-bit. because it's sprite, or because it is'nt. it's crap because the desing are different. it's crap because it's not like the X-serie, it's crap because it's not like the Zero Serie. it's crap because it's not like the EXE serie. because it's X7, because the serie was meant to stop at X5, because they did'nt let Inafune make it like he planned, because they let Inafune make it like he wanted. because they go for a lighter story... Even the Zelda fandom, who have a tendency of not liking the new game because it is'nt like the previous one, don't do it so much. And MegaMan is'nt as big as Zelda, he can't afford that.Of course everyone will have it's preference and dislike, and that's why it's good that each serie do it's own thing. but there is a neat difference between "it was'nt my type", and "it's complete garbage". Even x7 did not go to the trash.

You mad, Star Force as a series is a platinum series and sold over the likes of Bionic Commando never selling bellow 500,000 units and largely selling that much in Japan alone.

You are the type that made me hate the fanbase before, a fraud judging a series fraudulently to spin a narrative. This pathetic latest narrative is "Star Force killed the franchise" when it literally outsold legends, ZX and the Zero series with the same amount of games as well as most likely Mega Man Star Force the original outselling Mega Man 9 and 10 with its Japanese sales alone as I cannot fathom Capcom passing over the continued support of games that sold over 500,000 units that are as cheaply developed as 9 and 10.

I knew your type would rear its ugly head as soon as I saw the model for MM11. It's OK tho, you were never the types to carry the series, so if it dies again I'll just grab my popcorn and lmao at these elitist, conformist pandering "Mega Man" fans that can't even stand a spin-off, and can only remember basic 8-bit melodies that everyone else tells them is great.

I believe you will be able to find that out during that weapon tutorial space. I doubt you will be using any weapon energy so I imagine that you could play around with it quite a bit and check out all that each weapon brings to the table.

This all sounds quite interesting. I'm intrigued by the new mechanic as well as the potential composer of choice. Two of them worked on Breath of Fire III, one of my longtime favorite titles with some of the catchiest tracks in the BoF franchise. A Mega Man title with Breath of Fire style music would be most boss. The bossiest of the boss even!

I think a big problem.with Mega Man 9-10 was that it was not updated with content to keep players coming back.

Look at Shovel Knight...that game kept players coming back for years and soled millions of copies by offering full blown DLC campaigns.

I feel like Capcom could offer similar degrees of support by putting out Protoman, Bass, and Roll campaigns. Instead of a simple unlock.

I really want them to go the extra mile with Mega man 11 and like the aforementioned Shovel Knight (or borderlands etc) offer us amazing post release content to keep interest alive.

Look at how much indie games that take inspiration from Mega man are selling?

Inticreates puts our a new character or mode for Mighty Gunvolt Burst, and Blaster Master zero every few months,and it really drives continued interest in the game.

I know a lot of folk hate DLC, but if it is done right, like the game mentioned above, it can drive a lot of community interest and keep a game active relevant and alive for years after initial release.